Beyond all the awesome food we sampled last weekend, we also had the opportunity to ride in a hot air balloon! I had never been on one before, so I was pretty excited to hop on board.

We had to get up bright and early (6:00 am) to catch our sunrise ride. When we got to the field I was surprised to see that there wasn’t just one balloon, but a ton! They came from all over to attend the Blueberry festival.

We (meaning I, while Luke watched) got to work helping spread out our balloon so it could get blown up with air.

The propane tank is terrifyingly loud! I jumped out of my skin the first time they used it.

Pretty soon we were in the basket making our way up into the sky.

If you ever get the chance to ride in a balloon, definitely try to do at sunset. The light was amazing.

How many balloons do you see?

A huge house I felt compelled to take a shot of…

Riding in a hot air balloon isn’t scary at all. It really feels like you’re just floating along with no bumbs or sudden drops in altitude.

Landing is the hardest part because if you don’t have it mapped out, then you need to find an open space to land that isn’t near power lines.

There’s a “chase van” that follows your flight and helps direct you on where to land. They also help deflate and pack away the balloon.

After our safe landing, Luke decided to finally pitch in and help his Dad put the balloon away. ;)

We celebrated our first flight with a champagne toast with our Cheri, our pilot.

It was an awesome way to start the day! I highly reccomend you ride in a balloon sometime soon. It was so fun and the views are amazing.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I have EIGHT college girlfriends staying with me for the weekend. Luke is on a boys camping trip, so it worked out perfectly with have the ladies in town.

I’m sure there will be some funny posts/pictures from the shenanigans this weekend.